And to keep the book from getting too thick, I also have to cut pages out. Many altered book artists cut out random pages before beginning a project. I haven’t done that with this particular book because sometime I am drawn to a page because of a hymn or text. The pages I chose to alter for the Water challenge are Baptism liturgy.

After a page is altered, the fact that pages were removed is hardly noticeable.

Before beginning any altering, I protect the rest of the book by placing wax paper directly behind my current pages.

For this particular project, I planned on making a transparency from this photo which was my inspiration. To make a transparency, first tape the picture to a piece of glass. Then paint on several thin coats of acrylic gel, allowing it to dry in between coats. Each coat should be painted on in a different direction.

Here is the picture after several coats.

Next, flip the picture over, dip the forefinger in water, and begin to gently rub the paper off the dried acrylic gel.

I made several mistakes here. Number one, my picture was too large for this technique. Number two, I got the paper too wet. The ridge in the picture is the acrylic gel beginning to fold together. This is bad, but there is a good visual of the pulp rolling off the acrylic. The acrylic ended up ripping and was not usable. Lesson learned.

The music on this page and the house on this page are both examples of successful transparencies made by this technique.

While I was waiting for the gel layers to dry, I began working on the page. The idea was to have my family, words, and color in the background with the finished transparency laid over the top of the page. I used watercolor pencils and glued on cut out photos printed on regular paper.

I laid a cut out of the tree over the bodies for placement,

then added Psalm 1:1-3.

Soon thereafter, I learned that the transparency idea was not going to work, so I improvised and began coloring the page. The end result was not what I envisioned, but God has taught me not to be discouraged when things don’t turn out the way I plan. When the transparency tore, I just prayed that God be glorified in the end product, no matter my opinion. A lesson I have learned from this altered book is that the Holy Spirit will speak through my art, and He often has different plans than me. Go with the flow and go low (remain humble) is my motto.

I get it. I AM AN ALTERED HYMNAL! Filled with words, cut apart, glued together, layered with pictures, places and faces. Even the mud ultimately becomes something beautiful. Ha! There really is an artist somewhere messing with my life and making it so much more than the black and white book I wanted it to be. Thank you.

Oh how true. Somehow you just made my art even more meaningful to me than it was before. More than worship, it has become a picture of God’s hand in our lives, molding and shaping us.
And you definitely are an Altered HYMNAL; you got the music in you, baby! (say this outloud with some funky jive in your voice)
amanda